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This is the journey of our niece Jana and her husband Tony, in her own words. We’re sharing it in hopes of encouraging other couples longing to be parents. May God bless you with full quivers!

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! Psalm 127:3-5

These last four years, Tony and I have been on a journey. It’s been a journey of hope, disappointment, renewed hope, more disappointment, a little less hope, more disappointment, even less hope…you get the idea. It’s been painful. But it’s taught us many things and grown us in unbelievable ways. Everyone waits at one time or another—we aren’t unique in that—but we’d like to think our story can help give others some hope, so we decided to share here.

We began trying for a baby 4 years ago. Since then, we’ve gone through 4 rounds of IUI (intrauterine insemination), 4 rounds of IVF (in vitro fertilization), 1 early miscarriage, and taken over a thousand medications. Here’s what we got from those four years of struggle:
· We learned our hope can’t lie in things here on this earth or in this life; our hope can only lie in our Savior.
· We learned patience… man, have we learned patience.
· We learned that money isn’t nearly as important as we thought.
· We learned to focus our time and resources on things that truly matter. Wasting either of those on insignificant things just isn’t worth it.
· We learned just a little bit about suffering. We hope it’s made us better equipped to deal with it in the future, and we also hope to be able to help others in their suffering as well.
· We learned the importance of surrounding yourself with good people. They’ll be the ones helping you over the hurdles of life. Lucky for us, we have THE BEST friends and family, and have had the best support system anyone could ever ask for.
· We’ve learned so much more about one another. But more importantly, we have deepened our relationships with Christ, who ultimately taught us to rely on him and trust that He has a plan for us.
If all that learning was all we’d gotten from those four years of struggle, it would have been worth it. And truly, at the end of those four years, we’d reached a place of contentment and acceptance.

But we decided we would take one last shot at having a baby before moving on to adoption. We put all of our energy (and money) into one last round of IVF at the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine in Denver CCRM, a clinic we’d been told was one of the absolute best (thanks Deana Jackson!). We didn’t want to have any regrets when we moved on. So we went to Colorado, and in September, we finally got the news that we were pregnant. We knew this time felt different than the ones before, but not wanting to get our hopes up, we anxiously waited the three weeks for the sonogram that would confirm there really was a baby in there. That’s when the sonographer shared the news that we had three (!!!) healthy babies. And in case that wasn’t wild enough, they’re all boys, one fraternal twin and two identical twins. As overwhelmed and TERRIFIED as we are, we are over the moon excited. During these last four years we have been abundantly provided for and incredibly blessed by the Lord and our support system (physically, emotionally and financially). We know that we couldn’t have gotten through it all without the prayers of our friends and family; we just wish maybe you all hadn’t prayed quite so hard. 😉 Kidding! But if there’s anything we’ve learned through this process, it’s that we can get through anything if we lean in to the lessons God has taught us and rely on the people he’s given us.#Thebigthree#thisreallyisus